Drive or fly to Romania??

[E's Are Good]

It's about 1900 miles. Fly or drive, fly or drive. Would love to drive but it's only for a longish weekend. So wouldn't have the time to document the progress, although I'm sure I would . . . .Convince me to drive. . . Or fly? ... Or jump in the empty truck that's just left Dover to get a free ride

 

[mattc]

Your time is limited so fly. German motorway network will be getting busy with Dutch caravans and German motor homes clogging up the system. Traffic jams can be lloooonnnnnggggg.

The drive could be fun but not on the length of trip you outline.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Fly. Depending on where you want to go in Romania (a massive country) you might have another day's driving from the border to Bucharest. My Romanian friends tell me the roads are absolutely awful.

If you really want to do some driving, you can put your car on a train at Dusseldorf and that will take you to Edirne in Turkey - a simple drive up through Bulgaria and you can be at Constanza (the large beach resort) in Romania in a few hours.

I plan to tour the country at some point but slowly.

 

[DITTRICH]

Driving 1,900 miles (3,800 miles return) for a long weekend is not feasible.
I drive this distance to Russia every year solo. It takes me 2 very long days + border crossing time. But, since I spend 3 weeks in Russia, it is worth it as I do not have to hire a car. I cannot even believe you are asking this question. The time and distance vs holiday time are completely unsupportable.

 

[st4]

Drive. The drive there and back will be a holiday, adventure and an experience that will stay with you for ever.

 

[WDB124066]

Get someone to drive you man!

Steppenwolf - The Pusher Man (LYRICS) - YouTube

 

[Dieselman]

Driving 1,900 miles (3,800 miles return) for a long weekend is not feasible.

It's not really possible either.

At an average of 50mph it will take 3 1/2 days just in solid driving...no sleeping, no meals and not even any refuelling stops...



I say go for it and report back...

 

[st4]

Make the drive the holiday, there is so much to see on the way, take two weeks, have your weekend or few days there, drive back a different route and see the as much of the world as you can.

 

[st13phil]

My Romanian friends tell me the roads are absolutely awful.

Having driven (ridden actually - we were on the bike) there, I can say that without doubt your friends are correct. Also, the driving is completely manic: it seems that the average Romanian driver considers it the height of driving prowess to drive on the edge of destruction at all times. Even if the journey is to church for sunday worship

Great fun and, with the exception of the communist era industrial complexes, a wonderful place to visit though

(BTW, to the OP: fly as you won't have enough time)

 

[Benzmanc]

Duplicate

 

[Benzmanc]

If you drive you can do the Transfagarasan Highway

 

[markjay]

..My Romanian friends tell me the roads are absolutely awful...

Drove over a few days from Bucharest to Cluj, going anticlockwise and crossing the Carpathian mountains, back in 2008, in a rented MkII Mondeo. Most roads are indeed poor, but to be honest not that bad, and the local drivers are generally safer than the Italians.

The biggest worry was the frequent encounters with horse-drawn carriages on main roads, especially in the north, though you get used to these slow-moving objects after a while. Another issue was with some roads having no hard shoulder at all, instead they have a very deep ditch right alongside the end of the carriageway... great.

And lots of police carrying speed checks from their ancient Dacias. Word on the street is that a few Lei will get you off the hook, but I was not able to verify this claim as I was driving at legal speed and did not get stopped.

Flying back with Tarom from Cluj to Bucharest.... now that's another story

 

[DITTRICH]

It's not really possible either.

At an average of 50mph it will take 3 1/2 days just in solid driving...no sleeping, no meals and not even any refuelling stops...

I say go for it and report back...

If I leave London at 6pm on a Friday, I can be at the Dacha outside Moscow by 6pm on a Sunday evening (1,925 miles). However, this is a little misleading since I do drive during Friday night, having the odd short kip along the way. I sleep Saturday night in Kaunas, Lithuania and get up at 3am to get to the border queue which takes around 4 hours to cross over. Mr Caffeine and Mr Taurine help immensely as does a sense of knowing when to stop. My body clock has always worked better in the evening and at night.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Whichever way you decide to do it, can you drop by Marble Arch on your way and take back a few of the vagrants that seem to have illegally colonised the area, there's a good chap.

 

[E's Are Good]

Hey, thanks all. The original post was a bit misleading, I meant actually being there for a long weekend, not having to cram the whole thing into a few days . .

 

[st13phil]

Hey, thanks all. The original post was a bit misleading, I meant actually being there for a long weekend, not having to cram the whole thing into a few days . .

Ha-ha!

Unless you want to spend all day on motorways, I'd say that you should allow 3-4 days to get to Romania (longer if you want to get to the eastern side), and similar to get back. That way you get to see some of the places you travel through. So, if you want to be there for a long weekend, that means 10 - 12 days in total for quite a good trip.

Using a mixture of roads (motorways and single-carriageway), our route was:

• Day 1 - Calais to Troisdorf [approx 5hrs 30mins driving time]
• Day 2 - Torisdorf to Nuremburg [approx 6hrs 45mins driving time]
• Day 3 - Nuremburg to Vienna (stop for 2 nights as there's plenty to see & do) [approx 5hrs 50mins driving time]
• Day 4 - Vienna to Arad (the border crossing from Hungary was very busy with trucks, but quite quick to get through) [approx 6hrs 30mins driving time]
• Day 5 - Arad to Poiana Brasov (approx 80 miles NNW of Bucharest) [approx 7hrs driving time]

Then we worked our way back...

• Day 1 - Poiana Brasov to Cluj-Napoca (a great drive of about 180 miles, but approx 5hrs driving time)
• Day 2 - Cluj-Napoca to Budapest (Border crossing very easy; stop for 2 nights as there's plenty to see & do) [approx 6hrs driving time]
• Day 3 - Budapest to Linz [approx 4hrs 30mins driving time]
• Day 4 - Linz to Wiesbaden [approx 5hrs 30mins driving time]
• Day 5 - Wiesbaden to Calais [approx 6hrs 30mins driving time]

 

[DITTRICH]

Hey, thanks all. The original post was a bit misleading, I meant actually being there for a long weekend, not having to cram the whole thing into a few days . .

A long weekend is 4 days.
Your travel time will not be less than 2 days each way = 4 days
I understood the first time what you were saying but 4 days hard driving for 4 days holiday?

This reminds me of people who want to do the trans siberian railway in the winter...

 

[E's Are Good]

A long weekend is 4 days. This does depend on your working week? Could it not be from Thursday to Tuesday?

Your travel time will not be less than 2 days each way = 4 days
I understood the first time what you were saying but 4 days hard driving for 4 days holiday? :wall bash: Not sure if you enjoy driving or not, but four days for four days sounds reasonable to me.

This reminds me of people who want to do the trans siberian railway in the winter...

Just saying like